Dentistry BDS at Kings College London

Overview

Our Dentistry BDS course combines the latest thinking in dental education with early clinical experience. You will be taught by internationally-renowned staff and exposed to a rich breadth of skills and knowledge in a diverse clinical environment.

Key benefits

• Evidence-based and research-led degree course with a high level of clinical experience in all areas.
• Ranked 1st in the UK and 2nd in the world for Dentistry (QS World University Rankings 2019).
• State-of-the-art clinical and technical facilities.
• Cross-year team structure.
• Largest dental school in the UK graduating over 150 dentists a year.
• Partnership with the world-famous hospitals: Guy’s, King’s College and St Thomas’.
• Taught alongside Dental Therapy & Hygiene students. 
• Opportunity to intercalate a BSc degree.

Description

Teaching

The integrated nature of our course means that basic science teaching will relate to clinical practice and clinical teaching will be underpinned by scientific understanding. Our course emphasises whole patient care, which requires consideration of the patients’ total dental and medical needs, rather than just the provision of individual items of treatment.

Our course has three main components. The first consists of subjects common to medicine and dentistry, progressing from biomedical sciences including behavioural sciences, epidemiology, pathology and microbiology to human disease. The second includes oral and dental aspects of the biological sciences leading to an understanding of the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of oral and dental diseases and disorders, and the effects of systemic disease on the oral and dental tissues. The third covers the clinical and technical aspects of dentistry with the provision of comprehensive oral and dental healthcare for patients of all ages.

Our curriculum enables students to assist in the dental care of patients from year one and assume an appropriate level of responsibility for patient care at an early stage. Throughout your degree, the balance of teaching will shift from theoretical and academic science to practical and clinical experience. The final three years of the course are designed to give students extensive clinical exposure with structured placements for practice in the community, as part of a dental team, providing care in diverse settings.

Our working environment is structured into cross-year undergraduate teams so that students benefit from working and studying with the same group of teachers and peers throughout their time at the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences. 

Career prospects

A variety of career pathways are open to new dental graduates. The career path for many graduates is general practice, with others aiming to be consultants in the hospital dental service, senior clinical academics in a teaching hospital, or specialist practitioners. In every case, newly-qualified graduates will enter practice by way of Dental Foundation Training. Foundation Dentists (FDs) work in a Training Practice under supervision and have a day release course of lectures and demonstrations building on the undergraduate degree and gaining instruction in all aspects of practice management. After this year, successful FDs can begin work as an associate in a practice.